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Golf video games confuse me. At their core, these games take away all of the things that make golf enjoyable. Being outside, exercising a precise skill, and enjoying the company of others all seem like essential parts of golf. Despite lacking these things, many golf games are strangely addictive to a specific group of people.

Mario Golf: World Tour for the 3DS combines this strangely addictive quality with the nostalgia associated with Nintendo’s most popular characters, and manages to do so on a portable console that even includes a decent multiplayer component.

Digital golf games come in several specific flavors, and what makes Mario Golf: World Tour special is the way in which it rolls all of these flavors into a single game. If all you want out of this experience is the arcade style quick round of golf, you get that with just a few button presses. Instead, if you’re interested in a serious career mode where you can customize your character and be the undisputed best against the many different AI players, you can have that as well.

If you’re really just interested in playing online with friends, all you need is a WiFi connection. Each of these game modes are separate, but uniquely integrated into the game experience so that neither takes precedence over any of the others. Nintendo made sure you get exactly what you want out of this game.

Like most golf games, the default for gameplay is an easy mode that automates most of the experience. For casual players this is the classic arcade experience, and it works out well for every age group. The manual mode changes the gameplay menu for a more precise strike, but if you don’t know what you’re doing it is very easy to get lost.

The whole game feels exactly like what you’d expect from this genre, making sure not to drift too far away from what makes these games addictive in the first place. At the end of each round, you’re awarded prizes and stars that can be spent on new clubs or different outfits for your characters to help you stand out in online gameplay.

Mario Golf: World Tour takes full advantage of how insanely addicted some people get when it comes to these sorts of games by leaning heavily on DLC and making the online play feel a lot less like a standard golf game. Instead of waiting for everyone else to take a turn, the online play is simultaneous. This reduces wait time for four player games, which is often a complaint with online golf.

The Season Pass for this game adds six courses to the ten that already exist, as well as characters like Nabbit, Toadette, and Rosalina. While the existing game has more than enough content to justify the $30 purchase, the DLC adds at least another $15 to the cost of the game. We didn’t get access to any of the DLC packs for this review.

If you’re into the digital golf experience, Mario Golf: World Tour delivers in a big way. It’s one of the few games that has made sure I remember to bring my 3DS with me when I leave the house, and it’s one of the new 3DS games that lends itself to having the 3D enabled for a more immersive experience.